Kagoshima 鹿児島県

Place To Go

Kagoshima Prefecture covers an area of 600 km from north to south and hosts a number of tourist attractions.

Located on the southern tip of Kyushu, Kagoshima Prefecture extends 600 km from its borders in the north to its boundaries in the south, separate from Okinawa Prefecture. It is blessed with exceptional scenery, of beautiful oceans, mountains, rivers, and is home to many hot springs and diverse, rich nature. There are also many cultural and historical sites. Islands belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture include about 30 islands far to the south, among which is Yakushima Island, an island registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Tokara Islands, a chain of twelve islands of varying in size and stretching over a distance of 162 km, and Amami Oshima, the second largest isolated in Japan.

The Koshikijima Islands, 30 km off the western shore of the Satsuma Peninsula, are famous for wild Japanese lilies. The lilies cover the islands in pink during full bloom after the rainy season. Another popular destination is Tanegashima Island and Uchinoura Town. Tanegashima Islands is especially known for its rocket-launching bases, some of which are among the most technologically advanced gateways to space.

At a closer glance, the landscape of the main prefectural area are volcanic areas like the Kirishima mountain range and active volcano, Sakurajima, and national parks like the Kirishima-Kinkowan National Park (includes Yakushima Islands and Kuchinoerabujima Islands) and the Nichinan Kaigan Quasi-National Park, known for thriving subtropical plants like Livistona, a type of fan palm. The nature and parks in Kagoshima Prefecture range fromo temperate to subtropical.